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measurement of the Human 
Factor in Industry 



By 

Frank B. Gilbreth, 

Mem. Amer. Soc. M. E. 
Member Western Efficiency Society 

and 



Lillian M. Gilbreth, Ph. D. 



To be presented, at the National Conference of the 
Western Efficiency Society 



May 22-25, I 9 I 7 






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Xo definite and permanent advance is made in any kind of 
work, whether with materials or men, until use is made of meas- 
urement. This is especially true of advancement of the human 
factor in industry, which varies so much that unless we use 
measurement and abide by the results, there is no possibility of 
repeating the process accurately and efficiently at will, or of pre- 
dicting and controlling the future conditions that assure that ad- 
vancement. 

The first step in any great movement is to do exactly what 
this Society is doing at this Conference — to arouse interest in the 
subject, to discuss the great problems involved, to outline the pos- 
sible solutions, and to assign the various problems to those best 
fitted to undertake and handle them. 

The next step is to realize that all this discussion, valuable as 
it is, can grow into such action as it deserves, only if measure- 
ment is insisted upon from the very beginning of making the in- 
vestigations outlined, if the records of measurement are in such 
form that the}- can be used by those who did not make them, 
that skill and experience may thus be transferred, and if the results 
of the measurements are incorporated into actual and universal 
practice as soon as they are properly synthesized into practical 
methods of least waste. 

The world has come to realize the truth of this as applied to 
material things. The day of standardization of materials and of 
machines is far advanced, and is daily progressing ; but such has 
been rarely the case with measurem ent as_ applied to the human 
element. 

of machines is constantly changing; the human 
Measurement on machines that are obsolete is of 
little value. Measurement of human beings is valuable forever. 
Such old saws as ''Genius must be unconfined and uncriticised," 
"Skill is not a matter of measurement or of teaching, but of nat- 
ural aptitude alone," "Expertness is the same as efficiency and the 
expert often develops as a lone worker and with no thanks to 



The design 
being is constant 



— 3 



measurement," have stood in the way of measurement. So have 
such ideas as that measurement of the human factor, and the 
supplying of work that this measurement shows to be the most 
appropriate, lead to monotony. 

Now it is a matter of no difficulty to state the facts in their 
proper terms to an unprejudiced and open mind. Measured in- 
vestigations prove that genius develops best and fastest when 
provided with such opportunities as measurement of the genius 
show as necessary, and when relieved of all restrictive occupation 
and distraction. They also show that skill is largely a matter of 
training, and that greatest skill can be acquired in the shortest 
amount of time when right habits are acquired as a direct result 
of right methods having been taught from the start, and the 
human factor in the learner and the teacher having been carefully 
measured. 

Most interesting of all, perhaps, is that recent investigations 
prove absolutely that while expertness and efficiency may be pos- 
sessed by the same individual, often the expert is not an efficient 
worker. One of the most expert and most successful orthodon- 
tists in the country w T as proved by motion study measurement to 
be most wasteful of her motions and of her strength. Many an 
expert worker in the industries, in the professions and in the 
sports shows every evidence of working with speed and with a 
resulting output high in quality and quantity, but with a resultant 
fatigue entirely incommensurate with real efficiency. This is no 
mere theory of ours, not something that w 7 e merely base on ''what 
might be" or "what could be," or "what we believe is." It is the 
actual condition of affairs, as we can prove by records made on 
recognized experts and champions in numerous lines of activity. 

As for the idea that measurement leads, directly or indirectly, 
to monotony — it has been the direct results of measurement that 
have proved to be the great factors in eliminating monotony, and 
in injecting interest into all kinds of work. 

Monotony is the result not of measuring the activity, or the 
human factor in the activity, but of wrong assignment and place- 
ment to work, or of such repetition of work that the mind is 
forced to follow a cycle of activity again and again, with nothing 
to stimulate during the process. It is the measurement that has 
resulted in better placement, and in assigning each individual to 
that type of work for which he will become best fitted and that 
lie finds interesting. It is the measurement, and the theory and 
practice of measurement that is taught the individual at the work, 
that makes him interested in the work itself, in his motions in 






performing it, and in the rest intervals that enable him to per- 
form the most output with the least fatigue. 

How are these measurements made? Through advances in 
laboratory psychology, through educational psychology and through 
advances in laboratory practice in the industries, it is now possible 
to record, accurately and in great detail, not only what the activity 
is, its elementary and over all times, and the paths through which 
it moves, but also the results. Progress might be greatly accel- 
erated by closer cooperation between workers in various lines all 
interested in the same problems, though often they fail to realize 
this fact. Physiologists, psychologists, industrial engineers, man- 
agers, and other experts are all interested in so many of the same 
problems as to astound anyone who understands the various prob- 
lems, and can compare the investigations in comparative activity 
now being made. Yet many of the most prominent workers in all 
these lines, not to speak of the world at large, fail absolutely to 
realize that the problems being considered are common to all and 
that the results could be of use to the world very much quicker if 
there was more close cooperation during the period of investiga- 
tion. Methods and devices could easily be transferred from one 
type of laboratory to another, findings could be correlated and 
results classified and utilized to an extent scarcely dreamed of 
today. 

As for the methods and devices in use in industrial investiga- 
tions, in particular, we have already presented to you on previous 
occasions data concerning some of those that we use and have 
found most helpful. It remains but to say here that these are at 
the disposal of the nation in this emergency, and have been placed 
by us already at the national service. 

In order to illustrate and to make more concrete the need of 
measurement in considering the human factor, we bring to you 
today especially and as one typical example of the whole the 
problem of the cripple — the war cripple and the industrial cripple 
— both of whom constitute elements seriously to be considered in 
the great problem of preparedness. 

Ever since various visits to the warring countries, particularly 

after the war and an intensive consideration and study of the 

problem of the crippled soldier, we have put all possible time, with 

no remuneration, to the consideration of the problem of re- 

edi'-iting and utilizing the crippled soldier and the crippled 

r of the industries. 

realize fully that this is not the time to bring, the problem 

var cripples before the youth of the nation in .such har- 



rowing form as to prevent enlisting, or in anywise diminish the 
militant spirit that must exist if our national plans are to be suc- 
cessfully carried through. We realize also, however, that if this 
country is to succeed better than did the countries abroad in 
handling this problem, it must be seriously considered immediately 
by such bodies of mature men as this Society. No one realizes 
more strongly than do the workers in the reeducation of the 
cripples abroad, the need of our nation preparing a Bureau or 
Department along this line. We had, only a few days ago, a 
letter from Professor Jules Amar, the great French scientist, who 
is devoting his time and resources to this work, who has govern- 
ment backing and the most marvelous equipment, and with whom 
we have been cooperating in .crippled soldier work for some time. 
In this letter Professor Amar urges that this country prepare 
itself not only along military lines, but along all other lines, for 
the proper handling of its soldiers. And the French have suc- 
ceeded in this line with their remarkable ingenuity far beyond any 
other nation. 

We have a well defined purpose in bringing this subject to the 
attention of this meeting, which will be brought out plainly at the 
conclusion of my paper. Let us here outline the things that have 
happened abroad and in Canada because there has not been- suffi- 
cient attention paid to measurement of the human factor, and 
sufficient preparedness to handle the problems that have arisen. 

In the first place, there "was a universal lack of realization 
of the great difference existing among the cripples, and of the 
need of placing each man in that work not only that he was best 
fitted to do, but that he would most enjoy doing, and that would 
arouse and hold his interest most successfully and permanently. 
In the second place, there was a lack of realization of the many 
more opportunities available for cripples than had been realized. 
In the third place, there was a lack of realization of the necessity 
of supplying the proper and fitting reeducation for the productive 
output at the earliest possible moment, in order to bridge over 
the period of discouragement and despondency, and to help the 
cripple to fit back into the economic world and its work. 

In the fourth place, there was a failure to impress upon the 
cripple, from the earliest possible moment his likeness to other 
people and to other workers, rather than his differences, and, 
therefore, as a result, a failure to provide for that social element 
in the work that is necessary, if his permanent happiness is to 
result, fn the fifth place, there was a failure to educate the gen- 
eral community as to what their attitude towards the cripple 



should be. It is along all these live lines that this preparation 
must take place, and every one of these lines demands the most 
accurate measurement of the human factors involved. 

First, then, the lack of realization of the difference between 
individual cripples lead in many instances to teaching them all the 
same kind of work. This was especially the case where the un- 
fortunate choice was made not of work that was suitable, but of 
work that was easily taught, or worse .yet, work that the available 
teacher happened to be able to teach. The mistake here was a 
particularly sad one, in that often this line of work was one that 
could not possibly appeal to anyone of a group of real men who 
had left real work in the industries or professions to go into the 
most strenuous of all activities at the front. It was unfortunate, 
also, that after the cripple had been taught, he was not in a posi- 
tion to look at his new work as a sporting proposition nor to earn 
an adequate living, nor was he at all satisfied to work permanently 
at the new work in which he had been most painstakingly taught. 
For example, many red-blooded men were seriously taught to make 
baskets, wonderful baskets, that all possible customers could easily 
go without, that were expected to be sold to people who bought 
the baskets through pity to help the makers, instead of as a com- 
mercial proposition (even our Indians have abandoned basket 
making because it is not sufficiently profitable). Most men of the 
type who have the spirit to fight for their country might be ex- 
pected to work on baskets so long as they have attractive and 
interesting teachers, but when taught a trade requiring the variable 
of charity to be present at a sale of the product, would prefer, in 
the long run, to drown their sorrows in the standard manner. 
It must be remembered, then, that it is necessary to find a man's 
job for these red-blooded individuals, who, with the new oppor- 
tunities, will be as strenuous in their determination as when they 
charged the enemies' trenches. 

In some cases it is possible to assign a man to work which 
lie has done before he had been injured, and to adapt the working 
equipment in such a way that he can make a satisfactory output 
at the work. In many cases it is possible to "reeducate" the man 
to do a type of work higher than any he has ever done. We have 
never, as yet. found a case where it was necessary to assign any 
man to work that could not be made interesting, stimulating and 
profitable. 

The "mental" workers present the simplest problem. The 
''manual" workers of some education are also easily handled. 
The difficult element to handle consists of those who have never 



had the benefit of education — the illiterates. But surprising re- 
sults have been obtained in all countries, even among this class, 
where the individual to be placed has been studied with sufficient 
care. It goes without saying that the nature of the injury or 
maiming must be most carefully studied, also, and that this, along 
with the study of the mental training, and most especially the 
ability to learn, must be considered in the placement. 

Second, as to the lack of realization of opportunities for 
cripples. In considering the cripple as a subject for placement, 
we must remember that there are many variables involved. There 
are the variables of the physical capabilities of the cripple him- 
self, and of the possibilities of supplementing such limbs and fac- 
ulties as he still possesses with such mechanical devices as are 
used so successfully by Professor Amar. The most rapid survey 
of the illustrations of any of the several wonderful accounts of 
the work being done by him, show that he has carried mechanical 
adaptation and supplementing of the capacities of the cripple to a 
truly marvelous extent. 

Another variable is the amount of adaptation possible with 
the working equipment that the cripple is to use. We have al- 
ready given an account of the possibilities of adapting the type- 
writer through the use of a double keyboard, of a supply of paper 
from continuous multiple rolls and other devices furnished us by 
the Remington, the Monarch and the Smith Premier Typewriter 
Companies, to the use of the crippled typist.* Another variable 
is the possibility of reeducation, mental and manual, of the 
cripple himself. Along with existing, realized and unrealized, op- 
portunities for the cripple are others that result from the creation 
of lines of activity not yet existing, but much needed for the com- 
munity good, such as that of Dental Nursing. This we have al- 
ready described.* and need only say here that it consists of taking 
from the unfunctionalized over-burdened profession of Dentistry 
the routine work of cleaning the teeth, and assigning this to 
properly trained and inspected cripples, who will, under State 
Supervision and after the instruction of experts, supplement the 
work of the dentist, add to the health and wellbeing of the 
community, and at the same time furnish dental propholaxis at a 
price that the poor family can afford. 

It is along this line that we make our first plea to you for co- 

*"How to Put the Crippled Soldier on the Pay Roll." Presented at 
the Economic Psychology Association. Columbia University, New York. 

♦"The Conservation of the World's Teeth; A New Occupation for 
Crippled Soldiers." Conference Society for the Promotion of Occupa- 
tional Therapy, March, 1917. 

— 8 — 



operation in rinding' jobs specially adapted to cripples. In your 
own particular occupation, no matter what it is, there undoubtedly 
exist opportunities for cripples, both discovered and undiscovered, 
and it is a part of your duty to your nation, and of your contri- 
bution to adequate preparedness, that you yourself discover these 
opportunities, record them and present them for national con- 
sideration. If you have a successful cripple in your employ, if 
you know a cripple who is a productive member of the com- 
munity, his occupation must be one suitable for some other man 
crippled similarly, and it is your duty to record all existing data 
as fully as possible along such lines, noting particularly how he 
has achieved economic and industrial success, that others may be 
cheered and encouraged particularly during their transition periods. 
If you note in your observation of your own activity, or your 
own line of work, any places that could be filled by cripples of any 
possible type, it is your duty to record these also. 

Of course, with the Simultaneous Motion Cycle Chart** it is 
possible to take almost any line of activity and study it and adapt 
it in such a way as to place a crippled worker at least a part of 
the activity. But there is one way in which your observations 
will have more value than will those made through the laboratory 
methods, i. e., the great immediate need of the man who has 
been crippled, after he has been made physically comfortable, is 
for encouragement and comfort. This can be obtained quickest 
through accounts of actual existing men who have suffered similar 
injuries and who have made good. If you will record these for 
his use in the most simple and elementary fashion, the human 
element there will at once make itself felt in the encouragement 
and heartening of the newly made cripple. 

Third, you must realize the great need of supplying this in- 
centive to live and this reeducation at the earliest possible moment. 
Mr. George E Barton, Director of the Consolation House in 
Clifton Springs, New York, who has had a long, most interesting 
and valuable experience with cripples, with maimed, and with 
convalescents of all kinds, agrees with us that the crucial period 
is at the earliest possible moment in the convalescence.* With 
the war cripples a serious complication occurs here if this stimulus 
is not at once supplied. In the case of those of much education 
and training, if there is no stimulus at this time, despair and dire- 
ful consequences are more than apt to occur. If the man has not 

**"Motion Study for the Crippled Soldiers." American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers, 1915. 

*See papers by George Edward Barton. Clifton Springs, New York. 

— 9 — 



much education or constructive imagination, and the period of re- 
education is postponed — between the money that he receives with- 
out effort, and the misdirected sympathy of his friends, he is apt 
to fall into habits of. idleness, if not worse, that are extremely 
difficult to overcome later. This is universally acknowledged by 
those both abroad and in this country who have worked with 
cripples. 

Speaking of the money, or the pensions, it must be under- 
stood that nothing that we say in any way contemplates doing 
away with pensions. We agree with all those who sympathize 
with the cripples that they deserve — having "done their bit" — the 
thanks and reward of their country, and an opportunity to rest, 
if they so desire and if this is possible. However, the majority 
of them do not desire to remain idle, and it is necessary, for their 
own good as well as the good of the country, that they be allowed 
to supplement these pensions by all that they can earn and yet 
remain physically and mentally at their best. 

It is necessary at this time to realize, also, that ability to 
supply this need when it arises depends largely upon our being- 
prepared well in advance of the immediate need. On returning 
from two trips abroad after an extensive study of conditions 
there, and strenuously advocating general preparedness for our 
nation, we were laughed at as mad and foolish for thinking that 
this country would be involved in the great tumult abroad. Xow. 
when we again advocate as warmly and as persistently preparing 
for this crippled soldier problem, we are again told, even in 
Washington, that we are "in advance of the times" and that' 
"there is no need for haste in this matter." We wish to impress 
upon this Society most strongly, at this particular point, the need, 
if we are to conserve the best there is in our returning men. 
mentally and physically, of preparing for their reception and their 
reeducation at once. 

To consider fourth the need for a social element in the work. 
Too much of the work assipied to and taught to cripples carries 
the inference that they will work either as "lone workers," in 
their homes, or in communities of cripples like themselves. Now, 
we all know there is no punishment like ostracism, there is nothing 
that troubles the average human being like being considered dif- 
ferent from his fellows. We must make the cripple feel, from 
the earliest possible moment, that, in essentials, he is like even- 
other member of the community, and that the quicker he "fits 
back" into the social and industrial life of the community, the 
better for the community as well as for his own self. 

— 10 — 



It is, therefore, with particular pleasure that we see some of 
the newer opportunities for cripples that are being discovered. 
We are glad to acknowledge here the hearty cooperation of the 
National Cash Register Company in discovering and recording 
such opportunities. There are opportunities in stores, opportuni- 
ties for handling vending machines, for selling tobacco, papers, 
periodicals, candy, souvenir postcards; for tending and operating 
telephones and telegraphs, telautographs, cash registers, credit 
files, dictaphones and circulating libraries ; opportunities for selling- 
booths in hotel corridors; opportunities in small stores, and as 
ticket sellers and choppers in subway stations. When you realize 
what these opportunities are, and the broad field in which they 
lie, you will discover numerous opportunities in your own or- 
ganizations, and can cooperate and assist us in bringing these to 
national attention. The great benefit of all of these opportunities 
is that utilizing them for cripples will not only free people for 
other lines of activity that demand "whole" workers, but that 
the cripples will enjoy social life as well as opportunities for 
productive work for the community. 

Of course some suggested occupations will require the usual 
changes or adaptations. For example, an elevator operator's 
job requires no legs if the man be supplied with a stool. This is 
perfectly practicable in this country where there are no such 
ceremonies on entering and leaving a lift as exist abroad. > 

This leads us naturally to the fifth topic, the need of educating 
the public. Whenever we suggest a line of work — for example, 
Dental Nursing— as well adapted to the work of cripples, we are 
sure to hear the objection, that "the public does not wish to be 
brought into such close contact with the cripple." It "will never 
stand for that." Now the public must be educated, at the earliest 
possible moment, to the realization that the cripple is already an 
unrecognized large portion of the community, as can be easily 
realized by noting the large number of factories devoted exclu- 
sively to the manufacture of artificial limbs, and is destined to 
become a larger portion, as long as the war lasts and even after 
that, until we do away, as is possible to a greater extent, with 
industrial accidents. It is this feeling toward the cripple, which 
probably started in natural sympathy, and a desire to spare the 
cripple activity, that has resulted in making the average cripple 
feel that he is different from the other members of the community, 
and estranged from them, and it is this feeling that we must 
combat at the earliest and at every possible opportunity. 

— 11 — 



The pity for the cripple under the proper system of education 
should be supplemented by great admiration for the courage and 
expertness of the cripple, and by a desire to cooperate in making 
him a productive and a more satisfied member of the community. 
Again, the public must be educated as to the necessity of provid- 
ing a definite livelihood for the cripple. It is not enough that we 
give the cripple a chance to earn a living, we must be sure that 
he gets the living. It is not enough to give him a "fair chance 
with other competitors," for he may not have been trained to 
meet the lifelong training of unhandicapped experts. It will be 
especially easy to emphasize the possibilities of giving and insur- 
ing this living to the cripples who are placed in these new types 
of little stores. This can be done, first, by sending the customers 
to him; next,- by notifying all possible customers who and where 
he is; the "where" being taken care of by special signs on the 
street, such as druggists' signs in certain countries abroad; third, 
by notifying customers what he is; fourth, by providing such 
state or community controlled societies acting as jobbers for crip- 
ples who are comparatively small buyers who can handle small 
orders for the cripple, handle credits and take away the voucher 
of "deserving cripple in good standing," or "military cripple in 
good standing." These jobbers will afford us an opportunity of 
guiding the distribution, purchasing and selling expense of those 
who are handicapped as original producers, and help to turn the 
necessary unproductive expense due to distribution marketing and 
service over to those who are handicapped. 

Again, the public must be educated to a feeling that after 
certain jobs have been designated as suitable for cripples they 
should, as soon as there are cripples to fill them, be reserved for 
these cripples. It should become at least "not fashionable" to do 
any work that can be done by a maimed man, nor to employ a 
whole worker in a job that can be properly handled by a cripple 
out of employment. 

This' readjustment is no new thing, nor is it one demanded 
only by the situation with regard to cripples. We have for years 
advocated the reclassification of the trades. This reclassification 
lias always been needed. It happens that this new element in the 
problem, or rather the increased importance oi this element at 
tin's time, makes the need for such reclassification and reassign- 
ment all the more important. 

These, then, are the various factors ^\ the cripple problem 
as they exemplify the need for measurement of the human factor. 

— 12 — 



and we bring them before this Society at this time because your 
cooperation is so necessary. Experts as you are, each in his par- 
ticular line, each of you is making at this time a fight for measure- 
ment, for standardization, and for adequate preparedness. We 
urge you not only to continue this good fight, and to advocate 
that measurement be applied to all lines, but we urge you to con- 
sider this necessity of measurement as applied to the placement of 
the cripple as an excellent starting point. 

The war cripple holds human interest today, anything that has 
to do with him grips the. sympathies, and where the sympathies 
are once aroused, results will certainly follow, if w r e but perse- 
vere sufficiently Now, there are two by-products to this, each of 
which is greater than the aforestated direct product. 

1. The industrial cripples are much more numerous than the 
war cripples. This has always been so, and is true even in Canada 
today. Let us therefore take advantage of the present interest 
and enthusiasm to handle the problem of the industrial cripple 
whom we will have with us always. 

2. The study of the special problems of the cripple, his capa- 
bilities for highest placement and success, his special and motion 
study education and guidance are better adapted to solve the 
problems of vocational guidance, placement, education and indi- 
vidual efficiency of the youth and workers of our country than 
all other known sources combined. This is particularly well 
shown by the fact that each of the successful studies that we have 
completed to enable the crippled to compete with the un- 
maimed has resulted in information or apparatus or less wasteful 
motions that have also been correspondingly useful and valuable 
for the unmaimed. 

In other words, the cripples' needs are immediate. In serving 
him we are at the same time collecting the most valuable motion 
study data, and data relating to educational and industrial methods 
of least waste. This is a National need that one can realize better 
after talking with a keen observer who has recently returned from 
foreign travel, particularly from the far East. 

Will you not therefore, in your consideration for, and in your 
work along the lines of the Human Factor in Industrial Prepared- 
ness, and in your advocacy of measurement along these lines, con- 
sider in your own particular work the military and industrial crip- 
ples, present and future, who need the results of this work so 
sorely, and cooperate, not only in finding opportunities for the 

— 3 — 



individual, but in educating the great public with whom you come 
in contact as to the needs, and also to the remedies for these 
needs? By so doing you will add to the productivity and wealth 
of our country and to the great sum total of the happiness min- 
utes which are the ultimate units that we all aim to produce. 









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